Almodóvar lashes out at Trump upon receiving the Chaplin Award: "It will go down in history as a catastrophe."

At a gala held at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York last Monday, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar didn't hesitate to express his discontent with Trump's portrayal at the 50th Chaplin Awards ceremony. "Mr. Trump, I'm talking to you. You will not go down in history as the greatest governor in the world. Your naiveté is only comparable to your virus (...) You will go down in history as a catastrophe ," the director stated, before an audience that roared with applause and cheers.

Almodóvar confessed to having hesitated to attend the ceremony, arguing that the United States is governed by a "lunatic authoritarian narcissist who disrespects human rights." In his words, the filmmaker rejected the speech of the president and his allies, whom he described as "millionaires and oligarchs," stating that "they cannot convince us that the reality we see with our own eyes is the opposite of the one we live in."

In a defense of various figures and groups, he declared that " immigrants are not criminals , Zelensky is not a dictator, Putin is, and it was Russia that invaded Ukraine." Pedro Almodóvar, meanwhile, asserted in his speech that "Hunter Schafer, Zendaya's co-star in 'Euphoria,' is a woman even though her passport says male."

He publicly dedicated the recognition to "the thousands of deportees in recent weeks, to Hunter Schafer, as well as to Harvard University for its determination not to give up in Trump's war on knowledge and culture, which must remain a point of reference ," the Spanish filmmaker asserted.

The gala featured prominent figures from the world of art and entertainment. Among them were dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov , actress and Almodóvar muse Rossy de Palma , singer Dua Lipa , actor John Turturro , and filmmaker John Waters .